Ed Miliband has ruled out the possibility of his lawyer wife Justine Thornton
introducing him at the Labour Party Conference.

The Labour leader said his "hard working" wife would not speak at the annual gathering in Brighton later this month.

"She is working really hard in her own job, she is a lawyer and she has got a full- time job, she is playing her role looking after our kids and she has also got a role supporting me but ...we are not bringing her on to introduce me at conference, I can assure you of that, but it is great to have her support, it is great to have her there," Mr Miliband told ITV Daybreak.

The remarks come after a report in the Daily Mail that his wife is to make a prominent appearance at the conference in a bid to "humanise" her husband.

Sarah Brown famously introduced her husband, the then prime minister Gordon Brown as her "hero" before his key conference speech in 2009.

She also made an address to the conference the year before when she spoke of her pride in her husband's achievements and praised his "motivation" to help people.